JulyDiaz

Recorded LIVE in Los Angeles, Billy Merritt, Mary Holland, and Andy Secunda join Matt Besser for an improv4humans that kicked off the 2015 LA Indie Improv Festival! They’ll explore the consequences of having family Skype into a wedding, why Mary would mention her childhood bathroom ritual in her application essay to Yale, and why you would have a ringtone for every moment in a relationship. Plus, a humon explains the real reason why pineapple is the most suggested word. San Francisco: Matt Besser will be in ASSSSCAT at the Outside Lands Festival this Saturday, August 8th. Go to www.mattbesser.com for more info. Make sure to get the Upright Citizens Brigade television show season 3 now available on DVD, the UCB Comedy Improv Manual, and Dragoon’s new album at dragoongalaxy.bandcamp.com!

Paul F. Tompkins welcomes friends, strangers, mutual friends, work friends, acquaintances, and more back to SPONTANEANATION! This week, Paul’s special guest is Real Time with Bill Maher Executive Producer and playwright Scott Carter! They chat about Scott’s fury at Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes, being a childhood baseball card grifter, and unpleasant BBQ associations. Paul is then joined by Jessica Chaffin, Michael Oosterom, and Colleen Smith to improvise a story set in Death Valley. As always, Eban Schletter, only the best, scores it all on piano! The next LIVE SPONTANEANATION will be recorded at Largo on Saturday, September 12th, with special guests Kristen Schaal & Superego! Last time, Thomas Lennon and Paul covered a Joy Division song for the live audience ONLY. What will happen before your very eyes next time? Get your tickets now: bit.ly/SPONT915

It’s another special HDTGM All-Stars episode with guest co-hosts Rob Huebel & Chelsea Peretti as well as special guest John Flynn and they’re talking all about Miley Cyrus & Demi Moore in LOL. Recorded LIVE at Largo in Los Angeles, they get into the family bathtub scene, how Demi Moore got involved in the movie, the original French version of the movie, and the web-camera that goes inside a raw chicken. Plus, we hear from the camera assistant who put the camera inside the chicken and what was cut from the editor in the film during audience Q&As!

Howard and Kulap kick off the show by explaining why the only place to keep your headphones is in the fridge. Then, the gang welcomes Echo Kellum, who talks about the time he stole a kiss from Kulap, the many roles he's currently responsible for, and why, with his name, he had no choice but to go into the arts. Additionally, the gang discusses what Meryl Streep can do to take her career to the next level. Lastly, Echo reveals which comedy duo helped him craft his own comedy bones.

Randy and Jason welcome to the show attorney, Detroit sports connoisseur, and dear friend, Jimmy Acho. Then, Daniel Van Kirk covers stories that include the most aggressive pot head ever, a man whose life is an Adele song, and a city that has decided to fight urine with urine. Lastly, Michael Kissack calls in to try and find out where his best friend Daniel Van Kirk is vacationing.

Grab your tissues because it's a sad day in the hatch today. Tig, Kyle, and David are back together one last time to discuss Tig's engagement party and then weigh in on their decision to end the podcast. The gang reminisces on their favorite bits, answers fan questions, and talks about future plans. Welp, that's been podcast.

Natasha Vargas-Cooper & Andrew talk about the meaning of NDN (Not Dead Natives). Make sure to leave us a message about anything you think is racist at (323) 389-RACE.

Here's a potentially scary statistic: Of the 330 people freed by the Innocence Project, an organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted prisoners, 10% of them actually admitted to committing the crime they were innocent of. They even estimate that as many as 5% of all prisoners in America are innocent. That may seem like a low percentage, but that's tens or hundreds of thousands of people in jail right now who committed no crime. In the age of DNA testing, facial recognition software and the deputization of every person with a smartphone camera and a YouTube account, it's actually barbaric the ease with which we send people to prison without really knowing for sure if they're guilty or just had bad lawyers. We like to think that by comparing the technologies we have now to the primitive science and guesswork of 100 years ago that we're actually really good at solving crimes and putting the real bad guys away, but that's not the case. DNA science isn't nearly as exact as we think it is, and the criminal justice system is built more for quickly shuffling suspects to prison than actually solving crimes. This week on the podcast Jack O'Brien is joined by Jason Pargin (aka David Wong) to discuss how far we've come as a species in the way we try to solve crimes, the areas we're still woefully bad at it, and how society's earliest mistakes still color the messed up way in which we view and prosecute right versus wrong.

Ohhhh yeeeeah. It’s midnight baby which means it’s time for the Midnight Hour with your host BeeBee Bloo (Eugene Cordero). The midnight time is the right time for you to enjoy the stars, sky, moon, and your bedroom. BeeBee Bloo’s baby girl Janet joins him to answer midnight listener questions on how to make their bedroom look so much better, never feeling like your lover has left your side, and the best way to watch TV in the bedroom. Later on into the midnight, Traci Reardon arrives to help out her Twitter followers with her advice on all things sleep related during “Help Me, Rhonda.”

Jezebel Senior reporter Natasha Vargas-Cooper joins Andrew all this week to answer some racism questions. Today they discuss a caller feeling bad for being called an “n-word lover.” Be sure to call us at (323) 389-RACE to ask if anything is racist.

The Knockout Game is part of a war on white people! Satanists are abducting babies all over the country, and if your kids live through that, some asshole's going to poison their Halloween candy! Every few months, the media cooks up a new feast of terror for gullible parents to forward across the Internet. Jack O'Brien and Jason Pargin (aka David Wong) trace the moral panics of the recent past back to their roots, and learn something awful about all of us along the way. If you've ever wondered just how these new hysterias come about and just what they say about us, throw on your headphones and click play.

Paul F. Tompkins welcomes everyone on the internet back to Spontaneanation! This week, Paul’s special guest is stand-up comedian Jen Kirkman aka The Pod F. Tompkast's Southie! They chat about whether ghosts exist or not, why Jen's mother calls her a miracle baby, and the chilling tale of the one-armed blacksmith that lived in her home in the 1800s. Paul is then joined by Matt Gourley, Jean Villepique, and Victor Yerrid to improvise a story set at a Snorkeling Excursion Ticket Kiosk. As always, the astounding Eban Schletter scores it all on piano!

Recorded LIVE from RIOT LA is another edition of Talking with Tommy! Thomas Middleditch welcomes renaissance woman Barbara Preen to talk coats, cat hunting, and dramatic relationships with some Hollywood celebrities. They also play a round of the crowd favorite game “I’d Be That,” get their insult on during “Rippin’ On Things,” and close out the show with the classic segment “Dollars and Sense.”

Howard and Kulap, as joined by Stard, continue to detail the Summah Sojourn and all of the fans that shower it with love. Additionally, in a special act of generosity Kulap invites Howard and Stard to sample extra tunes from their new album. Lastly, Kulap makes one final attempt at getting Howard to reveal a big secret, during which time Howard confesses his desire to hang out with Kulap more often.

After a short break, our heroes are back! When we last saw our heroes, they had decided to roll their dice (literally and figuratively) and landed in the middle of a bright yellow desert after they climbed on some teleportation pads. Now they are stuck in this disgusting, hot, dry, and horrible desert with no way to teleport back. Will they find another way to get out of this desert hell? Tune in to find out!

Kulap welcomes back Howard who tells the tale of his Summah Sojourn, as well as why convenient stores are at times, rather inconvenient. Then, Natasha Leggero joins our hosts to discuss her new show Another Period and why having to go to the zoo is one of the harder aspects of parenthood. Also, the gang predicts whether or not the children of today will grow up to be robots. Lastly, Natasha explains the best way to day drink and not feel bad about it.

Natasha Leggero and Jeremy Konner of Comedy Central’s Another Period are here to give us all the juicy details about the fake reality show set in 1902, who’s first on the call sheet, and how they got Snoop Dogg to sing the theme song. Then, our old friends Victor and Tiny return to tell us about the new bits they’ve been working on exclusively for Caesars Palace. Finally, Mrs. Potts the former teapot from Beauty and the Beast stops by to ask for help on how to get back to her old life as a teapot.

Andrew Ti and special guest Janicza Bravo finish the week off by discussing the Dong Hung Asian Market in Grand Rapids, Michigan. As always, leave us a message about anything you think is racist at (323) 389-RACE.

This episode has TOO MUCH TRUTH

Janicza Bravo and Andrew talk about asking the question “Are you from around here?” as a preacher. Don’t forget to keep leaving us messages by calling (323) 389-RACE.

Marc Maron joins Adam for this instant-classic episode of The Wolf Den, recorded live on stage at Podcast Movement 2015. Marc shares his thoughts on having President Obama on his own podcast, WTF, and his take on the press coverage that only focused on the president using one particular word on that episode. He then tells the story of how he went from doing his show as “the alternative to suicide,” to having one of the most popular and respected podcasts around. Adam asks Marc if he was making any money early on, and Marc details the journey that started with getting free coffee from a roaster in Madison, Wisconsin, to the current successful formula of ad support and paid subscription archives. Marc then takes some audience questions about the moment when he knew WTF was more than just a personal outlet, the critical importance of making an authentic connection with guests, and his approach to marketing the show.

Dr. Nathan Bateman has hired Caleb Smith (Matt Besser) to conduct a series of turing tests to ascertain whether or not a machine’s artificial intelligence has actually achieved independent consciousness. In these interview sessions between Caleb and test subject Melissa, you’ll hear how a machine defines humor, music, and love. The United States of America has also hired Caleb to interview different citizens to see whether or not they are replicants, androids, robots, or any kind of artificial intelligence. Traci Reardon is his first interview subject and gives her honest answers to the Voight-Kampff test.

If you turn on the TV or scroll through Facebook for any short period of time, it seems like we're consumed with fear. There's always a new airborne virus or a new piece of legislature destined to sink the country into Purge-like anarchy, not to mention the sharks, snakes and spiders that have been trying to kill us for millennia. It's easy to place the blame on media in the 21st century, but fear mongering is no recent addition to the human experience. You can go back through history and trace all sorts of fears through the written word. Where now our movies depict zombies, alien invasions and nuclear wars, medieval literature spoke of demons, hellfire and apocalypse scenarios more fitting to the times. This week Jack O'Brien is joined by Kristi Harrison and Michael Swaim to tackle everything related to how we experience fear in the 21st century: what fears we can blame on evolution and what fears we can blame on society, whether it's true to say we're more afraid now than ever before and what our most common fears say about us as a species.

Janicza Bravo and Andrew talk all about the Barbershop. Be sure to keep leaving us messages at (323) 389-RACE.

Recorded LIVE at UCBeast from the 17th Annual Del Close Marathon in New York is part 3 of a monumental improv4humans with Matt Besser featuring the greatest improvisers in the universe, John Gemberling, Brett Gelman, Brian McCann, and Charlie Todd. Listen as they explore a world where prisoners love long-form improvisation, Poseidon and Satan discuss why he still uses the pitchfork as an intimidation tool, and police officers who have a Good Cop/Bad Jewish cop routine. Make sure to get the Upright Citizens Brigade television show season 3 now available on DVD, the UCB Comedy Improv Manual, and Dragoon’s new album at dragoongalaxy.bandcamp.com!